I’ve booked tickets on a lot of niche carriers over the years, though here’s something that I’ve never seen before.
In this post:
Boliviana de Aviacion doesn’t sell business class direct
As I wrote about in a separate post, I’m finally traveling in Boliviana de Aviacion (BoA) business class from Miami to Santa Cruz de la Sierra (which I’ve been really, really excited about, in case that wasn’t obvious). 😉
While trying to book my ticket, I came across an interesting discovery — BoA doesn’t sell business class tickets directly, but rather you have to book through an online travel agency. This is truly bizarre.
The airline has a “proper” business class product on its Airbus A330s, which fly to Miami (MIA) and Madrid (MAD). But when you go to BoA’s website, you won’t see an option to select a class of service. The flight results are exclusively for economy.
I figured I must be missing something. So I instead did my flight search through Google Flights, which was willing to redirect me to the BoA website to book.
But even when redirected to BoA’s website from Google Flights, I still couldn’t find any way to actually book business class. Before anyone asks, BoA’s app is… ummm… interesting. It doesn’t have any booking or reservation management functions, but rather just seems to be a flight status board of sorts.
So I ended up having to book my flight through an online travel agency. That’s easy enough, and it even made the ticket a few dollars cheaper. Business class shows up as normal on any OTA, ranging from Expedia to Booking. But it’s all a bit ironic, since airlines usually work so hard to cut out third parties, and want you to book direct.
I figured I was just totally incompetent, so I hesitated to write about this, because I figured OMAAT readers would quickly point out how I was missing something very obvious. But when I boarded my flight last night and ran into a fellow enthusiast, he brought this up to me as well, and asked if I noticed how you can’t book business class through the carrier’s website. So I’m happy it’s not just me.
Does anyone want to try to to explain this?
I didn’t go to business school, but if my understanding is correct, a key step to running a business is to actually, you know, sell and market the product that you have. Like, if you’re running a lemonade stand, it’s important to make lemonade, but it’s equally important to sell it.
So I really can’t help but wonder what’s going on here:
- Am I in fact missing something, and there is actually a way to book business class tickets on BoA’s website?
- Does the airline not realize that it’s not selling business class tickets through its website? If so, what’s going on in BoA’s revenue management department?
- Is the airline, for whatever reason, unable to get the functionality of selling business class seats onto its website? If so, why?
Is there some other possible explanation I’m not thinking of? I’ve just truly never seen anything like this, which is why I bring it up. It’s not a huge deal as a consumer, but from the perspective of an airline, it makes no sense.
Bottom line
Boliviana de Aviacion is the first airline that I’ve flown that offers a business class product on some flights, but doesn’t actually sell it directly. If you want to book BoA business class, you have to book through an online travel agency. While incredibly minor, I can’t help but be curious what the explanation is for this…
Any insights into BoA not selling business class tickets directly?
Maybe they already make enough money off the carriage of drugs (like the half ton of cocaine found on one of their flights to Madrid)?
I have just tried and I can't even book it in economy, I always get an error in Spanish that tells me they don't have any availability :)
It is not unusual for state owned carriers to not sell their premium tickets directly, and only through specific preferred agencies with appropriate political connections.
Am I the only one who doesn’t understand the airline’s “BoA” stylization (including on the tail) when the airline is “Boliviana de Aviacion”? Shouldn’t it be “BdA”?
Makes no sense to me.
I guess the "o" stands for the second letter in Boliviana.
Is this the business class fare on their site?
This was a search for October 9 MIA VVI, it's similar to what Google Flights finds.
BF_NORMAL
USD. 639.30
9 Available Seats
Price per passenger
You click on passengers to select class.
Kind of shocking you didn't figure that out.
@ Poe -- Are you actually able to click the "business" button? Because I'm not...
Yes https://imgur.com/a/QU2jK7A
@ Poe -- Hah, that's even strange. So it doesn't work if searching MIA-VVI or VVI-MAD, but it works if searching MIA-MAD? But when you search MIA-MAD, do you also get the message about there being no availability?
That's odd for sure... FWIW I have long been interested in BoA, so given the few reviews out there and despite not being a fan of *that* YouTuber's drama, I decided to check out the video and was shocked when he said he got an upgrade on MAD-VVI for only 40€.
Reading the comments, I'm guessing you have already made your way to VVI, but if not, it'd be interesting to know whether such cheap upgrades are actually true.
I flew Boliviana MIA-VVI round trip in business class. It is true you can't do this from their website. But a simple phone call to their number in Miami is all that is necessary. As a matter of fact, within a 24-48 hour window before the flight, you can upgrade to business class at a discount by calling the same number. They don't make it easy, but a phone call is all it takes.
roughly how much it is to upgrade within the 48 hour window?
Speaking from experience, I could see a hack-y website staff or external agency treating this like an upsell option... "Well, if you want customers to be able to book 2 classes on the website, we will need x more time/budget" (whether or not its true who knows)...
Which they weren't willing to invest for whatever reason.
The app points to under-resourced tech as well.
The other comment about their low volume of business tickets overall is another clue.
Hey Lucky,
I experienced the same trying to book BOA from Sao Paulo - La Paz - Madrid. Impossible to do a business class search via their own website or reveal any prices for that cabin which is as you say bizarre.
I can’t imagine that state owned airline having a sophisticated IT department and revenue management.
Thrilled you finally got to try it!! Any initial insights on the flight? Taking it next month from Miami
@ Tyler -- Stay tuned, initial thoughts on the experience are coming later today. :-)
It happens when the airline cannot even afford a booking system with various classes.
They just let the OTAs sell it and process the reservation kinda manually. They don't have many flights, so it makes sense for them to not invest in the system.
Maybe a partial explanation: On its domestic and short/medium-haul international network only offers Economy. It only offers Business Class on its flights to the US and Europe. So I guess the vast majority of the tickets are economy tickets ... that my 2 cents ...